314 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



The Yo-i/ao, a })lue porcelain, according^ to Julicn, but the color was 

 more proV)ably a pale green, for the Ch'a ching, a Treatise on 

 Tea, written in the eighth century, says cups of this ware gave 

 to the infusion a green tint — from the department of Yochou, in 

 (present) Hunan province. 



The Wu-yao and Ting-yao, of colors unspecified, from the department 

 of Wuchou, corresponding with the present department of Chinhua 

 in Chehkiang province; and from the department of Tingchow, 

 corresponding with the present district of Chingyang in the Hsi-an 

 department, Shensi province, respectively. 



The Yiieh-yao, a blue, or for the same reason as in the case of Yo-yao a 

 pale-green porcelain, much sought after from the earliest times, 

 from Yiiehchou, corresponding with the present department of 

 Chaohsing in Chehkiang province; and lastly 



The Shu-yao or Szechuen porcelain, easilj^ first among the productions 

 of that age, snow-white in color, with a clear ring, thin but strong, 

 and graceful in shape, fram the city of Ta-i, in the department of 

 K'iungchou, in (present) Szechuen province. 



THE ANTIQUITY OF TRUE PORCELAIN. 



As already stated, M. du Sartel declines to admit the antiquity attrib- 

 uted by M. Julien, on the authorit}^ of the native work he translated, 

 to the production of true porcelain in China, namely, the time of the 

 Han dynasty, and somewhere between the years B. C. 185 and A. D. 87. 

 His arguments, however, are marked by strange inaccuracies. Having 

 referred the productions of Hungchou, Shouchou, Yochou, and Yiieh- 

 chou, which, as above, Chinese authors claim to have been first manu- 

 factured under the T'ang dynasty, back to the Ch'in dynasty, that is, 

 to a period nearly two centuries earlier, M. du Sartel argues that the 

 remarks made in the Treatise on Tea above referred to (which, when 

 enumerating the varieties of T'ang porcelain, classifies them merely 

 according to the suitability of their colored glazes to impart an agree- 

 able tint to tea held in them) tend to show that the bowls or cups in 

 question could not have been transparent porcelain, bearing a decora- 

 tion in the colors named under the glaze, but must have been of an 

 opaque substance, covered internally with a thick colored glaze. In 

 this view he considers himself supported by the description given of the 

 Sui d^masty manufactures. This, he argues, gives an idea of trans- 

 parence, but the transparence is due merely to the use of a more vit- 

 reous composition or to a more thorough baking than had been pre- 

 viously customary, and the white color and other distinctive qualities 

 of true porcelain are only to be first found in the productions of the 

 T'ang dynasty — that is, in those productions which M. du Sartel, in 

 disregard of the statements of Chinese writers, the only authorities we 

 have to guide us, himself elects to refer to this dynasty. Secondly, he 



